Question 47 · Baptism and the Lord's Supper
Didache c. 100 · Ignatius of Antioch c. 110 · Letter of Barnabas c. 130 · Justin Martyr c. 155Sunday
From the first generation after the apostles, Christians gathered on "the Lord's day", the day of the resurrection: the Didache, Ignatius, Barnabas and Justin all say so, long before Constantine. 1234
Scroll through the centuries, or tap a dot. J K move between witnesses.
Didache c. 100 ADDidache 14.1–3
On the Lord's day of the Lord, gather together, break bread and give thanks.
"The Lord's day" (kyriake) is already the name of the day, as in Revelation 1:10.
Ignatius of Antioch d. c. 110 ADLetter to the Magnesians 9.1
If, then, those who lived in the old ways came to newness of hope, no longer keeping the Sabbath but living by the Lord's day, on which our life also rose through him and his death ...
"Those who lived in the old ways" may mean the prophets or Jewish believers.
Letter of BarnabasLetter of Barnabas 15.9
That is why we keep the eighth day with gladness, the day on which Jesus also rose from the dead, and appeared, and ascended into heaven.
"The eighth day": the day after the Sabbath, the start of a new creation.
Justin Martyr c. 100–c. 165 ADFirst Apology 67.3, 7
On the day called the day of the Sun, all who live in towns or the country gather in one place.
Justin explains to pagans why: it is the first day, on which God made the world and Christ rose (67.7).
Council of LaodiceaCanons Canon 29
Christians must not judaize and rest on the Sabbath, but work on that day; preferring the Lord's day, they should rest then, if they can, as Christians. If any are found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.
The canon shows some Christians were still resting on the Sabbath. Other Laodicean canons honor Saturday with Gospel readings (16) and the Eucharist in Lent (49).
Council of LaodiceaCanons Canon 16
On the Sabbath the Gospels are to be read with the other Scriptures.
In the East, Saturday kept a special honor beside Sunday. It still has no fasting in Orthodox practice.
Seventh-day Adventist ChurchFundamental Beliefs 20, The Sabbath
The fourth commandment of God's unchangeable law requires the observance of this seventh-day Sabbath as the day of rest, worship, and ministry in harmony with the teaching and practice of Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath.
The Adventist confession (adopted 1980, wording maintained since): the seventh day, not the first, is still the Sabbath, and Adventists keep it from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.
These writers also matter for this question. Their texts will join the timeline above once they are translated.
The first civil law of rest on Sunday.
Every early quote was read in its Greek or Latin and translated for this page by Claude (Opus 5.5) on 13 October 2026. Each line names the printed edition it was read from. A quote marked indirect does not state the answer outright; read its note. A writer's silence is never counted as an answer.